Stamford business owner falls victim to phone scam

A Stamford business owner is warning local residents to be on the alert after he says he was scammed out of hundreds of dollars.

Kyle Wells says a man called his business, Exquisite Environments Garden Center, on Saturday claiming to be from his utility company. Wells says that the man told him he had a past-due bill and if he didn't pay it right away, his power would be shut off immediately.

"He said he was a technician from Eversource and he said was en route to disconnect our power," Wells says. "So I was taken back, surprised, nervous, and anxious so I said, 'OK, what's the story?'"

Wells says that the person on the line said he had to pay $500 to keep power on at his business.

As soon as he sent the money, Wells says he realized the call was a scam and he reported it to police.

Stamford police say they have had a number of recent complaints about the specific scam. They say the criminals play off people's fears and say such scams are very difficult to investigate.

"We follow up on all these," says Stamford Police Lt. Diedrich Hohn. "A lot of times the numbers don't come back to anything or it's a blocked number and we can't really follow up on it. So just don't pay it."

Eversource has a warning on it's website about the scam, and it wants customers to be aware.

The company says it will never shut someone's power off without first sending a notice in the mail.